Offshore Wind and Wave (OWW)

Offshore Wind and Wave (OWW) is Synspective's satellite analytics solution for offshore wind power. Where turbines are placed largely determines how much power an offshore wind farm generates, but measuring wind at sea is costly: developers install measuring instruments on site, the instruments are expensive and the resulting data is scarce.

OWW uses Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data to observe and analyse wind speed and wave height across large ocean areas. Wind speed is estimated from the radar backscatter of the wind-roughened sea surface, applied to a model function, and is mapped at high resolution about 10 m above the sea surface. Because the same areas are imaged regularly, the maps also show the influence of the surrounding terrain and the wake effects of other offshore wind farms, and archive data can be used to map wind patterns over time. SAR observes day and night and in any weather.

Synspective states that the results help optimise turbine placement according to wind speed variation and make maintenance and operations more efficient, as a cost-effective alternative to on-site measurement. Target customers are offshore wind power companies, offshore wind farm management companies and environmental assessment companies. In a published use case, Synspective mapped offshore wind speed from Copernicus Sentinel data in the Sea of Japan off Akita and Yamagata prefectures, estimating that terrain affected wind speeds over more than 100 km. OWW is one of Synspective's analytical services; the company also builds and operates the StriX small SAR satellite constellation.